Friday, April 29, 2016

Trail Loop

We have officially broke ground to make a loop in the woods.  You can take the trail from the Christmas trees, then veer left, instead of right toward "Big Rock," and just before Salamander City, you can head left to the stream.  Trailblazers worked very hard today breaking this new trail, clipping with tools as well as moving large deadfall to mark the trail.  Once we got to the stream, we worked on fortifying bridges, reinforcing walls, and making the landing for jumping log safe.  We haven't quite figured out how to NOT get stuck in Mud Valley but luckily we have one more session for "Trailblazers."

I encourage you to take a weekend afternoon to check out the work that these second graders have accomplished.  They should be proud of their efforts, especially as they have made a tremendous contribution to GSB.  As parents, we can encourage our children to be outside in the woods AND we can encourage our school to get students into the woods.  A lot of learning happened today!  Thanks for allowing your students to participate!  We were so busy that we did not have much time to take pictures, but here's a link to the moments we captured:  Session 3

Friday, April 8, 2016

Session 2

Trail blazers are surfing their way into spring!
We worked on the trail out to the stream today, making corduroy paths, marking the trail with sticks and building our first bridge over the stream.  We also watched stream flow change as we removed deadfall.  Sarah Gladu from the DRA brought clippers to work with, which were a big hit in helping us to shape this neglected space into an invitation for other GSB students to explore.  Heading back to school, last week, we learned prey/predator for a walking game.  This week, we learned the flood game.

All in all it was a great day for working together and exploring.  Here's a link to more moments from the day:

Trailblazers Session 2

Friday, April 1, 2016

Welcome to Trailblazers

Welcome to Trailblazers. 

We had a great first session.  Each session will start in Mrs. Fake's room.  We'll have a healthy snack and then focus on a topic for thinking, writing and then discussion.  Today we talked about earth manners.  Students had great ideas about littering, not scaring wild animals and being safe in the woods.